Assam government asks centre to extend lockdown by two more weeks

The third phase of nationwide lockdown that imposed to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) will be end on May 17.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday said the Assam government has already sent written recommendations to the Union government and urged it to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 18.

Addressing a press conference held in Guwahati, the Assam Chief Minister said: “We are in favour to extend lockdown. The state government has conveyed its stand to the Union government. All the states have written to the centre and the centre will now decide.”

He further said during the lockdown period, the state has faced a loss of around Rs 1000 crore per day.

“According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the state has suffered a loss of around Rs 1000 crore per day during the lockdown period,” Sonowal said.

He further said the state is now getting a golden opportunity to fill up the loss following the announcement of Rs 20 lakh crore package by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Assam Chief Minister said there are over 1 lakh MSME industries in the state and these industries will get benefit from the centre’s recent announcement.

Assam on alert after 22 positive cases for COVID-19 have been detected in the state in last 48 hours and the state has reported 86 COVID-19 positive cases so far.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)